MEDIA STORAGE METER msMeter 2.2 UPDATE
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Media Storage Meter was developed by BBC R&D in 2004, to measure storage performance using multiple clients simulating production access profiles. The original software was open sourced and posted on source forge in 2006 and updated again in 2011 and 2013.
Version 2.2 is an update by Igor Vokatch-Boldyrev, for the EBU (www.ebu.ch). This version supports a programmable frame buffer and NTP time stamps from an external NTP server. Users specify a frame buffer size and measure the time to transfer all data blocks in the frame. A NTP time stamp is provided at the start of the measurement, with incremental time start and duration for each frame transferred.
If per frame and NTP time stamps are not selected, msmeter behaves as per msMeter 2.0.1. In Per Frame mode, the results.csv file requires post processing using the meterparse.jar java program.(See Quick Guide to Media Storage Meter 2.2.0.pdf).
The zip and tar.gz files contain source code and compiled executable programs.
Version Control
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2.2.0 Ctrl App supporting per frame and NTP time stamp.
3.0.1 Meter client supporting per frame and NTP time stamp for Linux.
3.1.0 Meter client supporting per frame and NTP time stamp for Win32.
(As per 3.0.1, but with minor fix to win32 part of file access code)
Using the msMeter Control Application
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The msMeter 2.2.0 Ctrl App runs on a Windows XP or Win 7 computer. It also works on Windows Server 2003 and Windows Server 2008 machines. Ctrl App is written and compiled in Visual Studio 2010, as C++ code. It requires the Microsoft Visual C++ 2010 Redistributable Package, to provide DLL libraries. The redistributable package is processor type specific, which ideally should be downloaded to the computer the code was compiled on. for the pre-compiled Ctrl App and meter programs, this is Win 32 (x86) e.g.
x86 (Windows 32 bit) Computer
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=a7b7a05e-6de6-4d3a-a423-37bf0912db84
If recompiled on a x64 (Windows 64 bit) Computer
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=BD512D9E-43C8-4655-81BF-9350143D5867
The links to these files may change.
The ctrl_app.exe program can be run by double clicking on the executable or by double clicking on a desktop or start menu shortcut. It should be noted that the default results file, results.csv, is saved to this folder containing the application.
Using msMeter Meter Worker Program
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The meter program code can be used for Linux or Windows computers, but should be compiled accordingly. For Windows, the same meter.exe program can be used on Windows XP, Windows 7 and should work on other Windows operating systems. A compiled meter.exe program is in the Release folder in the msmeter_3.1.0_win32_PerFrameRelease.zip
For Windows:
1. Copy the meter.exe file to a folder that is easily accessible from the DOS command prompt.
2. Download & install the Visual C++ 2010 Redistributable Package, as described above.
For Linux:
1. Copy the meter source files and makefile to a folder that is easily accessible from the terminal window command line.
2. Install the build-essential packages.
3. Type make and <RTN> to compile the program.
Starting the Worker Program on the Test Client
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To start the meter worker program, the Ctrl App must be running on computer accessible from the test network. The IP Address of the Ctrl App computer
must be known. If using a Windows PC, the Ctrl App and meter worker program can be run on the same computer.
Start the meter program in a DOS command prompt or terminal window, in the folder containing the meter program.
e.g. If <ip address> is the IP address of the Ctrl App remote computer.
For Windows:
> meter -rm <ip address>
For Linux:
$ ./meter -rm <ip address>
If the meter worker program cannot find the Ctrl App, it will automatically close. If the Ctrl App can be contacted, the terminal will appear as follows, e.g:
C:\Documents and Settings\Research>meter -rm 192.168.90.12
Media storage meter 3.0.1 BBC R&D 10/12/2013 DPB
----------------------------------------------------
- METER_FILE_UNIX and METER_WIN32 64 bit file access
- Block size and Direct IO selectable from Ctrl App
- IVB Per Block Measurements and NTP timing support
Press any key to terminate program
Opened connection OK
Waiting for server response
hellotoyou
Waiting for server commandsWaiting for server response
hellotoyou
Waiting for server commands
For more details see Quick Guide to msMeter 2.pdf and Quick Guide to Media Storage Meter 2.2.0.pdf
Parsing the Results File
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The results file need to be parsed using meterparse.jar java, which was created using using th java JDK 1.7.
JDK1.7 is available from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/downloads/jdk7-downloads-1880260.html1.
Instructions for recompiling the .jar file are provided in the meterparser_readme.txt file. Instructions for using meterparse are provided in Quick Guide to Media Storage Meter 2.2.0.pdf
